


Loneliness is a Rite of Passage

by Under_the_waxing_crescent



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Captain America Sam Wilson, Captain America's PSAs, Feels, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Original Character(s), Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sam Wilson is amazing and should be appreciated more, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 13:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19133260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Under_the_waxing_crescent/pseuds/Under_the_waxing_crescent
Summary: In which Sam Wilson takes over the mantle of Captain America and tries his best.He also finds out about Steve’s PSAs.





	Loneliness is a Rite of Passage

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if I wrote anyone out of character! It’s my first time writing a fanfic with these characters (or any fanfic in general lmao) so if anything’s off, my bad. Sam is one of my favorite characters, so I really hoped I was at least close to his personality. Also, time travel in the MCU is confusing af for my 1.5 brain cells, so I’m not sure if Steve ever became Captain America after he went back and lived his life with Peggy. I hope he was, because if he wasn’t my fic would make a lot less sense. 
> 
> I do not own the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In the five days Sam Wilson has been outed as the new Captain America, he has been bombarded with press, fans, haters, and less than appropriate Instagram dms. Falcon went from a B list hero to the symbol of an entire nation, blasting Sam into the limelight.

Old Steve laughs at him over the phone and says that it's normal. He assures Sam that the hype will die down soon. Sam sincerely hopes that would be the case, because he is getting really sick of being stared at while he's browsing the cereal aisle. He is also sick of getting random emails from corporations that suddenly wanted him in their ads, thinking that he was a lower quality Captain America with lower standards who would agree to be in a toilet paper commercial. They would probably never dare ask Steve.

Sam wasn't surprised. Steve was the epitome of the American Way, and he has been for years. The public was star struck by him, just like he had been when they met running years ago. They had expectations that were sky-high. Sam wonders if he could even begin to fill the gigantic shoes he left behind. 

Getting an email from New York's department of education that requests a meeting with him is a relief, because interacting with kids is so tame and normal and simple, yet important. It was a good place to start. One day later after sending a reply, Sam gets an email back inviting him to New York. Two days later, Sam is being flown out.

Three days later, Sam is sitting across from a woman, idly wondering if Steve has ever mentioned a partnership with the department of education. The woman (Sally Winston, Sam notes after squinting at the text on her name tag) clears her throat and begins speaking.

"It's an honor to meet with you, Mr. Wilson." She reaches out her hand for a handshake, which Sam accepts.

"It's a pleasure meeting you too, Mrs. Winston," Sam says. Winston smiles politely and continues, not fazed that she didn’t even have to give Sam her name.

"One of Steve Roger's duties as Captain America is to be a good role model for students," she explains. That sounded right. "He and the department of education of New York had an agreement where he would encourage students from middle to high school to make good choices. It's an unfinished program that could be expanded and improved, which is where you come in. Since the mantle of Captain America is passed down to you, it is only natural you should get an opportunity to take over Steve Rogers' responsibility. Of course, we would understand if you do not want to continue the program." She paused, gauging his reaction. Sam nodded enthusiastically. He could definitely do that.

“I would love to," Sam assures her. Sally Winston smiles wide and holds out her hand for another shake.

"Fantastic! This concludes our meeting. You should receive an email with more details tonight."

As the door closes after him, Sally Winston calls "We start tomorrow!"

When Sam presses the down button for the elevator, it occurs to him that he should press for more details before he agreed, but it’s for the kids and Sam likes kids, so it should be fine enough.

The next day, Sam reaches the building Winston directed him to. The email told him to show up in costume, so he waited in the lobby in his new modified suit feeling extremely out of place, until Sally Winston went to collect him as promised in the email.

Sam gets led to a room with cameras and a massive green screen. He looks at Winston in confusion, who avoids his gaze by speaking quietly to a man with a goatee. "Are we filming something?" Sam asked slowly. Goatee Man glares at Sally Winston, who looks properly abashed.

"Sal, you didn't tell him about the PSAs?" Goatee Man demanded.

"I didn't think he would say yes if I did!"

Sam looked between them warily. "What PSAs?" They both turned to him in shock.

"Oh my god, he doesn't know," Winston whispered. They exchange glances. Then Winston clasps her hands together, all perky and professional again. "Would you like to see an example?” Sam doesn’t get a chance to reply, because she’s already typing in “Captain America PSA” into YouTube on a computer. Goatee Man mutters under his breath and shakes his head.

After the first ten seconds, Sam was howling with laughter. He was going to give Steve _so_ much shit for this. He only stops once he sees the displeased expression on Winston's face, but his face wouldn't completely go back to neutral no matter how much he tries to stifle a smile.

This was the best thing that's happened to him in the past two weeks.

"So," Winston says impatiently after the video ends. "Are we going to start filming or not?"

Sam's grin slid off his face.

Sam films four PSAs before Winston announces that they would continue later, because he is a good human being and he already agreed. He tries to smile and look enthusiastic about eating green vegetables, but he's pretty sure he looked like he was kidnapped and was held hostage.

He sincerely hopes no one he's affiliated with is young enough to be forced to watch them.

At least Sally Winston seems pleased as she waves happily when Sam makes his exit. He only hopes that he doesn't have to do a Fortnite themed PSA ('It's what's the kids are into'- Sally's words, not his) because he's seen Thor's YouTube channel and he's pretty sure he would rather gouge out his eyes.

When he goes back to the hotel room he's staying in after grabbing a late dinner and fighting petty neighborhood crime, Sam gets cozy with a blanket and mug of coffee because he has research to do. He puts "Captain America PSAs" into the search box and is pleasantly surprised by the numerous results and videos that showed up, yet shocked that he didn’t know about them.

An hour and four minutes later, Sam has watched all twenty-one existing PSAs. He has also cried from laughing so hard. Impulsively, he sends some of the best ones to the number last used by Bucky, who was probably hotel hopping or in Wakanda, Sam has no idea. As one of Steve’s closest friends, Sam figured he probably had a right to know. He also sends some to Clint and Wanda. He even sends one to Tic Tac, because he's grown kind of fond of him.

Sam begins to send some to Natasha too, because he knew she would love them. The realization that he couldn’t came like a punch in the gut. He swallowed hard. He turns off the cheap hotel lamp and decides to go to sleep instead.

The next day, his phone was blown up with laughing-crying emojis (most were from Scott, who texted like a fifteen year old), one message from Wanda, two from Clint, and two from Bucky. Sam reads Bucky’s first because he didn't expect his response so soon.

The first message was actually a laughing crying-emoji, which surprised Sam, because Bucky was stoic and somewhat emotionally constipated (Sam can’t blame him after all the crap he’s been through). It was followed by:

“ _Sorry, that was from Shuri. She hijacked my phone while I was laughing and she wanted me to thank you for blackmail material._ ”

Sam actually chuckled. He quickly replied.

“ _Back to Wakanda again_?” Sam watched the dots move on the screen as he waited for a response. He and Bucky weren’t _close_ , per se, but after all the fights they’ve been through where they were allies, he felt like they could be considered at least acquaintances, maybe friends.

“ _Yeah. It’s peaceful here.”_

“ _You should visit if the paparazzi won’t leave you alone. That photo of you at Whole Foods wasn’t very flattering_.”

“ _Gee, thanks_.”

“ _You’re welcome_.”

Clint’s messages say, “ _Holy shit,_ ” and “ _I showed it to Cooper and Lila and they already knew but they didn’t tell me wt_ f”

Wanda simply sent “ _lol I already knew_ ,” which made Sam remember that she was probably in her early twenties. Thank god she was too old now to see his PSAs.

Sam gets Steve on FaceTime because he wants to see his reaction and hopes that he’s awake wherever he is, since he told Sam that he wanted time to travel the world in true retired-old-man fashion (Clint was probably green with envy).

“Hey Sam,” Steve says when he accepts the call. He was all smiley and sunshiny with the Eiffel Tower behind him, and Sam couldn’t help but feel happy for him because he deserved it.

“How’s France?” Sam asked, grinning.

“Very beautiful,” Steve says, still smiling in his pure, old man way. His eyes have lost their usual tenseness that Sam has gotten to know so well. He was so like Past Steve in terms of morality and sense of duty, but he was so much more at peace. “The food is delicious.”

Sam almost felt bad about what was going to happen next.

“So,” Sam began, feigning innocence. “I got an email from the department of education in New York the other day.”

Steve raised an eyebrow in silent confusion, which prompted Sam to go on. “I got there and met with this woman named Sally Winston. She encouraged me to take over one of the projects you were involved in. To help encourage middle and high school students to make good choices.”

There was a look of wariness on Steve’s face. Sam burst out laughing, because he couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“I found your secret,” he said. “PSAs, huh?”

Steve groans and rubs his temples. “Not you too,” he muttered. Sam blinks.

“Wait, you told someone?! And that person wasn’t me?”

“Tony found out from Queens. Nat found out because she’s Nat,” Steve says, lips quirking up in a fond smile.

Sam let out a soft laugh. He was glad she didn’t miss out. “I’m salty that she didn’t tell me,” he joked. Then he frowned. “Wait, that spider kid’s in high school? I thought he was in college.”

Steve gave him an amused look. “You saw him at the funeral, didn’t you?” Steve asked. Sam chuckles.

“I hope he’s doing okay,” Sam mused, leading back into the pillows on the hotel bed. “After Stark’s death and all. Pepper too. And his new daughter. Maybe I should check up on them, make sure they’re doing fine. Get rid of any bad blood. Very Captain America thing to do.”

“No,” Steve corrected gently. “It’s a very _Sam Wilson_ thing to do.” Then he frowned at something in his hand that Sam couldn’t see. “My croissant’s getting cold. Talk to you later.” Steve gets all smiley and sunshiny again. “You’re a good man, Sam.” Then the FaceTime ends. 

Sam sits there in silence, feeling very lonely all of a sudden. With the Avengers scattered and the base destroyed, he really didn’t have anywhere to go. He wondered if he was still considered a fugitive, but he hasn’t exactly been subtle about his whereabouts and no one’s tried to arrest him so it should be fine. He can probably return to his house in DC, but then he remembered that it was sold after the snap. It doesn’t feel like home anymore anyways.

Steve and Bucky were doing their own thing. Clint had his family to look after, and Wanda was one of the youngest. She still had an entire life to live, an identity to find that was separate from Scarlett Witch, a chance to live somewhat normally without the world on her shoulders.

He realized that this was how Steve had felt when he got out of the ice, stuck in a time that wasn’t his own, with no one by his side.

Sam gets out of bed and roots through the mini fridge for a yogurt. He turns on the tv. Not even a whole minute passes by when he hears the unmistakable sound of police sirens. He gets out of bed again to look out the window, where a whole caravan of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars are zipping by.

 _Why the hell not_.

He scrapes the remnants of the yogurt from the bottom of the container and tosses it into the trash can before grabbing his suit and the shield. Pulling open the window, Sam jumps out and spreads his wings wide.

He followed the sirens to a building choked with flames and smoke. He lands on a half-destroyed balcony and uses his goggles to scan for trapped life forms.

When Sam hands an old lady her slightly singed (but safe!) cat, the reporters’ cameras focus on him. They zoom in on the woman’s look of relief and Sam’s smile. They stay on him as Sam opens his wings and takes off, the shield glinting in the sun.

The fire catches the attention of dozens of media outlets, from Buzzfeed to the New York Times. A picture of Sam in the air, holding the shield, is in every article.

That night, Steve sends him a text. It just says “Good job, Cap,” but Sam just sits there and smiles for a whole minute.

Maybe he could do this after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed the story! This was originally supposed to be really light and fun and a way for me to cope after Endgame, but I went a little heavy, whoops. 
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
